Suddenly
by nineteennintytwo
Summary: Upon his return to Midgard, Loki finds himself having to deal with the evidence of a certain venture sixteen years before; a venture he would rather forget. Meanwhile Tony deals with a similar problem, only his is much smaller - and growing by the day.
1. Prologue

So, uh...yeah. Another story. I blame my muse. It can't make up it's mind which story it wants to write.

Anyway, I decided to watch _The Avengers_ back in January to see what all the fuss was all about. Now I know. It was an _awesome_ movie. Then I watched the other movies which led up to it, and then looked around the web for comics, stories and information...and I found something interesting.

Hopefully you're all aware of the Spider-Man comic _The Coming of Chaos_. If not, go look it up, otherwise what I'm about to say won't make much sense (and to say it outright, I haven't read the comic; they're hard to get in the UK, but I found pics online).

The idea of Loki having a daughter was too interesting to pass up, especially one who he has some form of concern for. So I decided to work with the idea and plop it into the cinematic universe. So it's not a direct sequel to the comic; I've only taken the character of Tess Black and put her in a new story and a new situation.

Oh, and Tony's gonna have a secondary focus in this as well. Because he's awesome. I hope you all enjoy the story, and don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I don't own _Marvel_.

* * *

Prologue

Loki first saw her when he had been stood atop of Stark Tower, awaiting the arrival of the one who called himself Iron Man.

Observing the meaningless Midgardians below, she had somehow caught his attention. Her hair was black and tied up, and leaving behind a double of himself on the tower, Loki reappeared invisible below and saw that the girl's eyes were blue behind her glasses.

A very _familiar_ shade of blue, he noted. She was standing in front of a hot dog vendor, handing over money for the snacks she had bought the two children by her side. Both were brown haired and green eyed – a boy and a girl – and he observed that they were not related to the girl. They looked too different. She was looking after them, perhaps?

Before he could observe more, he saw Tony Stark soar overhead to attack the portal which was being set up. Loki reappeared in the place of his double, and as his eyes met with the man of iron's, he forgot about the girl and focused on the task at hand.

He only remembered her again when he saw her running down the street, her hands tightly clasping the children's as she led them out of danger. The invasion was in full swing, and Loki was flying over the chaos.

In the few seconds that he noticed her, part of a building began to fall towards the trio. Loki watched in amusement, wondering if an Avenger would make it in time to save them.

None of them did...but instead, something else happened. Something which drew in Loki's full attention.

When she noticed the rubble falling towards them, the girl somehow calculated in a fracture of a second that there would be no time to move out of the way, so instantly pushed the two kids behind her; they both ducked down and hugged each other. Then the girl turned back to the falling rubble, held out her hands...and formed a force-field around her and the two children, which the rubble bounced off.

What caught Loki's attention was that it looked exactly the same as the force-fields _he_ used to protect himself.

The girl turned to the two children and got them to stand up, before they continued running and disappeared down into the sub-way. Loki contemplated going after her – out of curiosity if anything – but then he noticed Agent Romanoff fly past him, heading towards Stark Tower, so he took off after her in an effort to stop her.

With the tide of the battle turning, Loki forgot about the girl again. And he would only remember her months later, when he returned to New York to seek revenge...but instead discovering something he never expected.

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Please review!


	2. Tess Black

Apologies for the long wait. I was hoping for more reviews, but I'll just go with what I've got. I can understand why people would be weary of these kinds of stories.

There'll probably be another long gap between this chapter and the next as well. This is because the next one will focus around Tony, and I want to wait until _Iron Man 3_ comes out to see if there's anything I can work with.

Oh, and along with the re-imagining of Tess, I've also re-imagined Sigyn. She's not a goddess in this; just a mortal.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter **and please leave a review!**

* * *

Tess Black

"Tess! Tess!"

A shove in the shoulder finally roused Teresa "Tess" Black from her doze, and she looked lazily through her glasses at where the teacher was talking at the front of the class. Only then did she realize that she had fallen asleep – again.

"You need to get more sleep," whispered her long-time friend, Bonnie Whitehart, who had given her the shove. "Seriously, what are you doing at night which is more important than rest?"

"Nothing," Tess lied without effort.

She had always been good at lying; it certainly helped her cover up her nightly outings across New York.

When class was over the sixteen-year-old jammed her books into her back-pack, which she then hauled over her shoulder on the way out. Bonnie hurried to catch up with her in the hallway, but before she could speak the third member of their trio, Wyatt Jones, joined them.

"Hey, guys," he greeted cheerfully, as he always did.

Bonnie gave him a cheerful 'hi' in return while Tess just mumbled under her breath. This made Wyatt raise an eyebrow.

"Trouble sleeping?"

"She fell asleep in class _again_," Bonnie replied when Tess didn't.

Bonnie and Wyatt fell into their usual pattern of conversation while Tess just walked quietly alongside them, allowing her friends to fall into background noise. In truth, she preferred to be alone; she was always one who kept to herself and never really thought of herself as a "people person". But in her opinion, it was nice to have at least two or three friends at hand if she ever needed them.

So deep in her thoughts about the rest of her day, she didn't notice Wyatt ask her a question, and Bonnie had to elbow her in order to get her attention. The girl's blue eyes met the brown ones of her friends.

"What?"

"Wyatt wanted to know if you were free tonight," said Bonnie. "We're going to have a movie marathon."

"I'll pass," replied Tess. "I'll be tired after Ninjutsu class."

It was another lie; she was never tired after her classes. She'd long since grown used to lying to those around her, and only rarely felt bad about it.

"Maybe that's why you're always so tired," said Bonnie. "Too much crazy Ninja fighting wears you out."

"Or she's using her mad skills to fight nigh-time crime," Wyatt suggested with a laugh.

Bonnie laughed too. Tess's expression never changed; while she was good at lying, she was also good at hiding the truth, too. Her friends never suspected a thing.

* * *

The boy hit the floor with a bang, and Tess just stared at him with a raised eyebrow as he winced in pain.

"I'm sure you can do better than that," she told him.

She held out a hand and helped the boy to his feet, before the class sensei dismissed them for a break. Tess made her way over to her bag with a skip in her step while the rest of the class dragged their feet across the floor with moans and groans. The dark haired girl stared at them; she couldn't recall whipping their butts _that_ hard.

Sure, she had greater strength than them, her body tissue was tougher than the average human (to the puzzlement of many doctors), and her stamina was the best her sensei had ever seen. But Tess didn't see this as an excuse for the rest of the class to give up to her without a fight.

Upon finishing her drink, the girl's phone began to ring. Tess went to reach for it, but paused when she had a thought; instead she reached out her hand and concentrated. In her mind's eye, she imagined the phone lifting on its own and flying towards her hand.

Nothing happened. And the phone was still ringing.

With an annoyed sigh, Tess picked the phone up the old fashioned way and looked at the screen. The name read 'Simon Alexander', and on the screen was a picture of a well-dressed man giving a cheerful smile. With a raised eyebrow, Tess answered.

"Hello?"

"_Tess!_" the man on the other end greeted with enthusiasm. "_How's it going?_"

"Fine," the girl replied, wondering why everyone had to greet her so enthusiastically. "What's up?"

"_Things have been busy as hell at the company,_" said Simon. "_Listen, I know you only work Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends, but do you think you can have Chloe and Terrence Friday after school?_"

Chloe and Terrence were Simon's ten-year-old children; twins. With no mother around, Simon had been paying Tess to babysit them. Tess had only taken the job because she needed the money, but had grown fond of the kids and was surprisingly good with them. Surprising in the eyes of her mother and friends, anyway.

"Well, I was only going to pretend to do homework that day, so I should be free," said Tess.

Simon chuckled.

"_You have a wonderful sense of humour,_" he told her. "_It's no wonder the kids love you, and you've done a better job than the nanny I used to hire._"

Tess knew that sentence had a double meaning to it. He was not only referring to how happy his kids had been since she'd taken the job, but also to what had happened months before.

The attack on New York had happened out of the blue, and Tess had been caught up in the chaos while taking the kids out for a hot dog. They'd almost been killed at one point, and Tess thanked the Heavens for her powers, even though she had no idea why she had them. If those kids had been harmed...

She shook her head. Everything was all right. Simon had been able to take refuge in the basement of his office building, Bonnie and Wyatt had fled into one of the subways, and Tess's own mother hadn't been in the area. They had been lucky, unlike others.

After making further arrangements with Simon, Tess hung up and continued to drink from her bottle of water. That day had been both scary and weird. Scary because they'd almost died.

Weird because Tess had seen the leader of the invasion watching her, and yet, he hadn't attacked her.

* * *

After Ninjutsu ended Tess went straight home. Once through the door she tossed her keys on the side, flung her bag down by her feet and kicked off her shoes. She quickly removed the useless glasses from her face; if her mother saw those, the girl knew she would demand what they were for. And Tess couldn't explain that they kept people from making a certain...connection.

"Mum, I'm home!" she called out.

"Pick up your bag, put your keys on the hook and place your shoes under the stairs."

Tess rolled her eyes. Her mother knew her too well.

After she'd done as asked she entered the kitchen where she knew her mother would be, and found her washing up at the sink. Sigyn Black was a woman with blonde hair – in stark contrast to her daughter's black hair – and blue eyes, born to an American father and a Norwegian mother.

"How was school?" the woman asked.

"Meh."

"Glad you had an interesting day."

"Loving the sarcasm, Mum," said Tess, as she pulled out some leftover pizza from the fridge. "I'm sure yours was the same."

"I'm a stock trader," replied her mother. "It's a given that the job is boring."

There was a knock at the door, and knowing that her daughter wouldn't answer it, Sigyn dried her hands and left Tess to her pizza which was warming up in the microwave. Arriving at the front door, Sigyn opened it...and the smile on her face fell when she saw who it was.

Theodore "Theo" Richardson greeted Sigyn with a smile.

"I hope I'm not interrupting dinner," he said.

"Yes, you are," Sigyn quickly lied. "So if you would just leave-"

"I have tickets!" Theo interrupted her. "Tickets to this convention about elves and myths and legends; doesn't that sound exciting? Or if you don't want to go, we can just go back to my place and play some video games, or I can show you my latest project in the lab-"

"Theo, please," Sigyn spoke up, and the brown-eyed, brown-haired man stopped talking. "I've lost count of how many times you've asked me out, and frankly, it's getting old. I'm not interested. Goodbye."

She tried to close the door, but Theo stopped her with his foot.

"Siggy, please-"

"Don't call me that!" Sigyn informed. "Theo, the answer was 'no' the first time you asked me in university, and the answer is still 'no'. Now please, just go."

"Mum? Is that Theo again?" Tess called from inside. "Tell him if he doesn't leave, I'll curb-stomp him. Again."

Theo looked slightly frightened and slightly annoyed by Tess's threat.

"Sigyn," he tried one last time, "I promise that I'll take care of you and your daughter. Unlike that idiot, Lincoln."

Sigyn's face grew dark, and without a word, she kicked away the foot which was keeping the door open and slammed said door shut in Theo's face. On the other side, Sigyn rested her back against the door and slid down it. Tess – who had appeared from the kitchen with a slice of pizza in her hand – gave her mother a worried look.

"Mum?"

"I'm fine."

Tess disappeared, before reappearing with another slice of pizza. She sat herself down next to her mother and offered her the slice, which she took and shoved in her mouth.

"If I ever meet my father, I'll be sure to kick him where it hurts for you," said Tess.

Sigyn smiled.

"Not if I do worse to him first."

* * *

It was passed eleven when Tess was certain her mother was asleep, and crept out of bed without making a sound. She knew that if her mother ever found out what she did every night she would not only forbid it, but it would cause far too many problems and raise too many questions.

Tess opened one of her draws, but as she did, she concentrated on what she wanted. Small bits of magic like this were easy. She was still having trouble with the bigger things, like forming force-fields for longer than five seconds. That day when New York was attacked, she got lucky.

The girl smiled when she opened the draw, and instead of finding piles of clothes, she found a black suit with a pair of green gloves and a golden mask. It was time to go to work.

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**See that box below? That's where you type the review. Don't forget! :D**


	3. The Surprise

So I saw Iron Man 3.

And it was awesome.

This chapter – and subsequently the story – takes place about two months after IM3. I really needed a sub-plot in this story, so I came up with this, and I think it fits rather well.

As always, **please review** and tell me how I'm doing. Also, spread the word!

And lastly...thank you wonderful person, whoever you may be, for posting this story on the TV Tropes recommendation page. You made my day :)

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The Surprise

Tuesday mornings were never weird for Tony Stark. Even after he and Pepper had moved into Stark Tower permanently, where weird things usually happened.

This made him all the more suspicious when Pepper snapped at him for no reason other than he'd put the wrong milk on her cereal (the one with the blue cap instead of the one with the green cap, although he couldn't see the difference between them), which was then followed by her hurrying towards the bathroom with her hand over her mouth.

Tony was worried about his girlfriend, of course. He was just automatically suspicious because, well, nothing weird ever happened on Tuesday mornings.

"Jarvis, what's happening in there?" he asked, while standing outside the bathroom door.

"_Sir, you know Miss Potts has requested for me not to check in on her while she is using the bathroom,_" the A.I. replied. "_I cannot imagine why._"

Tony knew exactly what Jarvis meant by that last comment; the sarcastic tone gave it away.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he denied, trying to get _that_ particular incident out of his head.

"_Besides,_" Jarvis continued, "_I am almost certain that you can hear exactly what is going on in there, sir._"

And Tony could. What he could hear was loud and unmistakable; Pepper was throwing up. Every time he heard her, he just wanted to burst in and somehow stop it from happening, but knew that all this would gain was something thrown at his head and an extra bruise to deal with.

So instead he waited. Eventually he heard the toilet flush and the door unlock, before Pepper stepped out looking a little paler but mostly all right.

"Now what was that about?" Tony asked.

"I think it might have been the shawarma we ate last night," said Pepper. "It didn't agree with me."

"Hey, don't dis the shawarma," said Tony with a pointed finger. "That stuff's the best. Besides, it didn't do anything to me. And I made you try some before; you didn't throw up then."

"Then maybe it was my portion," said Pepper, before she made her way past Tony and back into the kitchen area, her boyfriend following after her.

Awaiting them at the breakfast bar was a rather tired Bruce Banner, who was munching on some toast and reading the morning newspaper. Happy was on the couch nearby with a plate of bacon and eggs on his lap and the TV on, but had dozed off due to being on his guard all night.

"Everything all right?" asked Bruce.

"Yeah, bad shawarma, apparently," said Tony. "I don't believe it. Shawarma's too good."

Pepper just rolled her eyes and sat herself down in front of her untouched cereal, which she began to dig into hungrily. This wouldn't be a problem – if she hadn't complained about the milk just ten minutes earlier.

"So the milk's fine now?" asked Tony.

"It's just milk; don't get all crabby about it," said Pepper between mouthfuls, rolling her eyes.

Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Funny," he said. "You were screaming and yelling at me not ten minutes ago about how I poured on the wrong type. When I was making you breakfast, as well. From now on, I won't do that."

"Fine! I won't eat it then!"

Pepper slammed the spoon into the bowl, causing milk to splash out, before she shoved it away and grabbed a banana instead.

Bruce had been watching the encounter with growing interest, and placed down his newspaper to address them before things got out of hand. He could already see the fire growing in Pepper's eyes, and the increasing urge in Tony to give some form of witty comeback.

"Guys, calm down," he told them, before turning to Pepper. "Pepper, when you threw up, was that the first time?"

"Yes," she replied at first, but after thinking a little harder, she added, "but now that I think about it, I did feel a little queasy yesterday. But I didn't throw up."

"Uh-huh," said Bruce, before turning to Tony. "And Tony, has Pepper's mood been swinging back and forwards a lot lately?"

"Well, she's usually telling me off about something, so that's normal," said Tony, ignoring his girlfriend's glare. "But recently she's been more crabby about it than usual. Give her a pair of those crab-pincher things and she'll start walking sideways."

That earned him a good shove.

"I see," said Bruce; he addressed Pepper again. "How busy have you been for the past two months?"

"Very," Pepper replied. "You should know; you were around for the most part. What with moving into the tower, getting life back to normal again, not to mention all the meetings I've been attending when someone _else_ should be."

She gave Tony one of her looks, and he quickly glanced down at his lap to avoid it.

"So in other words, you've been too busy to notice anything unusual about yourself," Bruce stated.

"Unusual?" Pepper questioned, blinking in surprise. "Like what?"

"Like maybe when your last period was."

"Oh, my last period was..." Pepper began, but trailed off when she realized, to her horror, that she couldn't remember. "I...don't remember when it was. Did I even have one this month? Did I even have one _last_ month?"

"You tell me," said Bruce.

Pepper's eyes widened.

"Wait, I don't get it," said Tony. "What do periods have to do with all this? I mean, I know her temper gets shorter during that time of the month-"

"Tony, you have to know what a missed period means, right?" Bruce informed him. "And since Pepper's gone into shock, I'll just say it outright. I think she's pregnant."

All the humour and the confusion went away instantly, and Tony's eyes widened just a little. It was small, but that was Tony. He kept on looking between both Pepper and Bruce, back and forwards, unsure how to react and unable to say anything.

A good few minutes passed before anyone said anything, and it was Jarvis who broke the silence.

"_Sir, Miss Potts, I could run a quick scan to make sure_," said the A.I., the tone in his voice suggesting that he was just as shocked as them.

Tony eventually nodded.

"Sure."

Pepper nodded as well, and didn't say a word as Jarvis completed the scan.

"_Well, it turns out that Dr. Banner is right,_" he said. "_Congratulations, sir, Miss Potts._"

Another silence followed.

Eventually Tony stood up and began to pace. Bruce watched him, ready to comfort his friend should it be needed, while Pepper continued to stare at the floor with wide eyes. None of them knew what to say, or how to take the news.

It was great news, really, and both Tony and Pepper knew it. But with their busy lives, neither of them were prepared for this change, and both were worried about what would happen and if they would even make good parents.

This hit Tony harder than Pepper. He knew how much he resembled his father, and as his encounter with Harley two months before proved, parenting skills was something the two men shared – or rather, the lack of it.

"Jarvis," he began, "I want you to contact everyone. Steve, Tasha, Clint, Nick, Phil; tell them to get their asses over here, and that it's important."

"_Right away, sir._"

Tony then began to walk in the direction of his lab.

"Tony, don't," Pepper spoke up. "I thought you weren't going to do this anymore."

"I know," he said, turning to face her. "But I need to...figure some things out. Call me when the others get here."

He walked out and slammed the door shut behind him. It was this which woke up Happy, who jumped from the sudden noise and ended up spilling his breakfast all down his suit.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I'm trying to figure that out myself," said Pepper.

* * *

I really hope I got Tony in character here.

**Don't forget to review! **


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